One Nevada Brings Home the BACON

For the past few weeks, drivers on major roads in Las Vegas have spotted a popular breakfast food on billboards, but the ads aren’t for a restaurant.

The digital billboards displaying sliced bacon are part of the BACON campaign—which stands for Bad A$$ Checking from One Nevada—launched earlier this month by One Nevada Credit Union.

To promote its suite of checking products and new services, such as Ca$h Perks, KeepTrack and free text alerts, the $700 million, 75,500-member credit union in Las Vegas launched the campaign on Aug. 1 with a teaser: a single slice of bacon on giant digital billboards throughout the area.

The move prompted plenty of attention on the roadways, airwaves and social media sites, the credit union said, and Twitter exploded with tweets about the unique design and the possibility of the boards being hacked.

Soon after that, the bacon reappeared with a shark, in honor of Discovery Channel’s popular Shark Week programming. In another installment, the bacon sported a trendy mustache.

Print ads also ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal showing only a single piece of bacon with the designated hashtag #baconcu.

In addition, a series of three commercials featuring a bacon-obsessed mom cooking up an abundance of bacon to her questioning family began airing Aug. 19. The bacon-crazy mother suddenly has time to make bacon—morning, noon and night—for her son and his friend, thanks to the time-saving benefits of her new One Nevada checking account.

Other promotional mediums include a larger-than-life-sized bacon cutout where members visiting a branch can take a photo with the bacon and post to One Nevada’s social media sites for a chance to win $250, and a Facebook contest where those who like the One Nevada Facebook page can enter for a chance to win a new grill and a year’s supply of bacon. A website dedicated to BACON was set up for those interested in learning more about the campaign.

“We understand the campaign is a bit edgy, but to break out from the competition, you have to take risks. Our marketing department has never been afraid to do that,” said Greg Barnes, senior vice president of marketing for One Nevada. “We created the bacon checking acquisition campaign last year but shelved it until the timing was right, which we believe is now. Bacon is ultra-trendy right now so it makes perfect sense to us.”